Facebook meets Blogger - aka 'Rhett wrote on Scarlett's wall'

Rhett & Scarlett -- 6"x 9" monotype print with watercolor

Greetings, gentle readers. All worlds merge on the internet it seems, as my blog is now on my facebook page. Thanks to all of you who confirmed my blog ownership (...what an odd thing to say). I finally gave in and joined the grand social network, and I'm glad I did. Its been wonderful to reconnect with so many old friends - if any of you have stumbled across this blog...welcome! This is the ongoing chronicle of my return to printmaking. Some of you have prints of mine that I gave to you years ago, and it's wonderful to hear that they still have a place in your heart and in your home. If it's your first time visiting, poke around, look at some older posts, I welcome comments and questions. If you like what you see, come back again (you can even subscribe if that strikes your fancy) and see what's new.

Today's print, from my recent Hollywood Icons show, is "Rhett & Scarlett" from Gone with theWind. This print is a monotype created by covering a metal plate in printing ink and then carefully removing ink with paper towels, blending stumps, q-tips, etc., to define the image. Paper is then placed over the plate, the plate is run through the press transferring the ink to the paper and...voila! I then watercolored the print after the ink had dried.

the inked plate ready for printing

Scarlett wrote on Rhett's wall: I only know that I love you.
Rhett wrote on Scarlett's wall: That's your misfortune.

Bare Hands Gallery presents...

Greetings, gentle readers! Sorry to have been away so long. I've been back in L.A. for a few weeks now, but after pushing so hard to get the show done I've been too burned out to blog.

Thanks to everyone who's been so supportive of this blog and to everyone who helped me pull this show off. It was a group effort and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

The show has been very well received and sold fairly well. Hopefully we'll sell a few more (since I just found out today that the show is going to remain up for another month! Thanks, Wendy!). The opening reception was very well attended. The 'Hollywood Icons' theme really came together with elements like a retro tv sculpture (pictured below), tv theme songs and movie soundtracks for music and even a popcorn machine. I saw many old friends and met some new ones. The evening was a wonderful, frenetic blur. I intended to take pictures of the reception, but again - blur. Luckily, pictures were taken at the reception and as soon as I get some of them I'll post them for your amusement. In the meantime, here's a few pics from the gallery.

Thanks again to everyone.

view from the front of the gallery


loose prints clipped to super-slick wiring system (thanks, Rashid!)


giant Kermit print


retro tv sculpture (thanks, UAB Theatre Dept. and OzWorks!)


woodblocks on display


Bandit detail


Raiders... bathed in gallery light

Kermit the Frog & Fozzie Bear

Kermit the Frog 29 x 41" collograph print
Fozzie Bear 29 x 41" collograph print

I'm leaving for Birmingham in a few hours for the Hollywood Icons show, so here's one more blog post for the road. Muppets!! I was a huge fan of the Muppet Show as a kid and dabbled in puppetry for most of my youth and throughout college. So when I was trying to come up with icons that I could print large, bold and simple - these two came to mind.

Printed on oversize Arches cover paper, these are the flagship prints of the show - very BIG!

These prints are a type of relief print made by cutting out shapes of vinyl, inking them, then laying them out puzzle-like directly on the press bed, laying the paper on top of the whole mess and running it through the press. There is no plate or block in the traditional sense. I'll do a post in the future where I go into this technique in greater detail.



Kermit hot off the press (for a sense of scale)


Kermit (detail)


Fozzie (detail)


"This print better turn out good, Kermit."


Cut vinyl pieces inked and reassembled on the press bed ready to print


Fozzie fur and vinyl pieces on the press bed after printing.

Kirk & Spock

Kirk & Spock 5 x 7" linocut print with watercolor


Today's Hollywood Icons entry goes out to my good friends Colin & Christopher.


Kirk & Spock two-color linocut print (blue)


Kirk & Spock two-color linocut print (purple)


linoblock during inking


linoblock detail


Live long & prosper.

Indiana Jones

Raiders of the Lost Ark 12 x 18" original linocut print artist's proof


The Hollywood icons show is closing in fast, and I'm happy to say the prints are finished (whew!). Everything went to the frame shop on Monday, and the handful of prints I'm framing myself are finished (Thanks, B!). Now the real fun (not) begins: address lists, frame labels, packing and shipping, etc.

Today's Indy post is rather fortuitous. As I type this the new Indy flick, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is about an hour from premiering here on the west coast (and already open on the east coast).

I didn't really appreciate Raiders until I was an adult. As a child I wanted Han Solo to fight Darth Vader, not Nazis... but I digress.

These images are a little wonky, because at 12 x 18" the prints are too large to scan, so I had to photograph them.

Raiders of the Lost Ark detail


Carving the linoleum block in process

This is about two thirds of the way through the carving process. The white stuff is baby powder. By pushing the powder into the areas that have been cut away, it creates a nice contrast allowing 'the image' to be seen much more easily ( a simple solution and very handy).


inking the block during the printing process


Raiders framed and ready for the show

At 12 x 18" (approx. 20 x 25" framed) this is certainly one of the largest pieces of the show.

Stay tuned. More to come.

Hollywood Icons

As many of you may know, all these Hollywood prints I've been working on these past months are for my upcoming show at Bare Hands Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama. I was the first artist to show at Bare Hands twelve years ago, and am excited to be returning as the artist for the 12th anniversary show. I'm currently finishing up the last few prints, signing and numbering prints, and getting everything off to the frame shop so it can be shipped to Birmingham for the show. I'll continue to post previews of the show here on the blog up until I go to Birmingham.

But this post is really to show off the official invitation for the show, and to thank graphic designer Christopher Davis for the awesome job he did designing this postcard. It's exactly what I wanted: simple, graphic, retro & hollywood. Thanks, Christopher!

Superman

Superman 6x8" six-color woodblock print

The year is 1978 and Christopher Reeve is the Man of Steel in ... Superman.

The tagline for the film was "The movie that makes a legend come to life" and that was pretty accurate. Superman was already one of the most recognizable icons in American culture, and this movie (and the fact that it was a good movie) served to make Superman even more indelible. I was seven years old when I saw this movie in the theater, and it certainly made an impression on me.


This is the most ambitious woodcut I've done to date with four blocks totaling a six-color print. The layout was tricky, having to make sure each block was going to line up with the next block and so on. The printing was tricky too, registering each block carefully to line up the colors on every print. Above are the first three blocks cut awaiting printing.


A print (with the yellow already printed) being pulled from the 2nd (red) block.


The third (blue) block on the inking table during printing.


The final (black) block in the process of being carved.


And with the printing of the fourth and final block, the print is complete.


The iconic (and patriotic) fruits of my labor

Bo Derek

Bo Derek 6x8" collograph print w/ a la poupée and watercolor


Bo Derek 6x8" collograph print w/ transparent top roll and watercolor




Construction of collograph plate - this is the layout stage, cutting out all the pieces of construction paper, making sure it all fits, before adhering and sealing to the substrate. Modeling paste was later added to create the texture of the water and waves.



a big inky mess - the palette for the prints mixed up and laid out.


the inked collograph plate



fresh print being pulled from the plate

Belated Anniversary

Happy Anniversary, Printing Press! *

Happy Anniversary, first print! *

I'm sorry to say the occasion slipped my mind. As we grow older I suppose more things do.

March 12th was the one year anniversary of this printmaking blog, and therefore also the one year anniversary of purchasing my beautiful printing press.

Getting the press was the impetus to start this blog.

I wish I could state that in the last year I had harnessed the power of the internet to market my work like I should. But I have thoroughly enjoyed the convenience of having a home studio. I had a very successful print show last year and have another print show this June, both of which would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to do without my press. (If you're a printmaker and you're thinking about getting a press, I highly recommend it - and CraigsList is a wonderful thing.)

I also wish I could say I've posted to this blog as often as I'd hoped, but in fact I've been pretty lax about it. I have enjoyed sharing my work, my process and my thoughts with the world via the magic of the internet; but what I've enjoyed most is the feedback and support I've received from you, gentle readers. Thank you.

* apologies for cheesy cupcake photoshop hack job

Yoda: "Do or do not. There is no try."

Yoda 3 x 4" woodblock print with watercolor

The Hollywood icons series continues with the coolest puppet since Kermit... Yoda. Yoda first appeared in the 1980 blockbuster film The Empire Strikes Back (the best of all the Star Wars films, if you're keeping score).

just printed from the block

This woodblock print is printed in a couple of two-color combinations and also just in black relief ink and then watercolored.

two-color print in light and dark green


two-color print in green and black

The Six Million Dollar Man: Reboot

The Six Million Dollar Man 3"x 4" linoleum block print with watercolor

For those of you following any of this, you may have noticed this is my second $6,000,000 man piece. I was having trouble getting a good print off of the collograph plate, so I decided to take another crack at it. Printmaking can sometimes have a high percentage of things that don't work out. Also since doing the first piece, I printed a bionic woman print (below) that is also 3"x 4", and I thought a pairing might be nice.

The first print above is printed with black relief ink and watercolored after the ink has dried.


The Six Million Dollar Man 3"x 4" linoleum block print with chine collé

This print is printed in transparent black relief ink on top of a vintage merchandising image from the Six Million Dollar Man toy line (which I had many toys from... Bigfoot, anyone?). The vintage image is on a thin piece of paper with glue on the back of it. The pressure of the printing press simultaneously transfers the image from the block to the chine collé paper and adheres the chine collé paper to the thicker printmaking paper.


The Six Million Dollar Man 3"x 4" two- color linoleum block print

This is a two-color relief print. First an uncut linoleum block is inked with transparent red ink and printed. Then the image block is inked in black and carefully lined up and printed on top of the red.

All three prints are available for purchase in my etsy shop ... here.

hot off the press